Designated Outstanding collections

Designated
Outstanding
collections
Contents
3Introduction
4 East Midlands
6East
10London
20 North East
22 North West
27 South East
31 South West
37 West Midlands
43Yorkshire
Introduction
The Designation Scheme exists to celebrate collections of outstanding
resonance, that deepen our understanding of the world and what it
means to be human.
The Arts Council is passionate about collections and their ability to
impact upon and enrich our lives, and the Designation Scheme is an
important and visible assertion of our belief in their enduring cultural
value.
The Designated collections cover such diverse areas as political and
ecclesiastical archives, art history, literature and theatre, economics,
the history of transportation on land and on water, and the medical
profession. They demonstrate eclectic tastes and intellectual journeys,
the emergence of disciplines and theories and the careers of our famous
figures. They bring art, science and industry together in stimulating
ways. Our collections hold the key to who we are and they are an
irreplaceable resource.
Designation is an enduring award and it is crucial to the Arts Council’s
mission to bring great art and culture to everyone. Designated
collections are located in both rural and urban centres across the
country, from Cornwall to Cumbria.
The Designation Scheme was introduced at the behest of government,
and since 1997, has identified pre-eminent collections held in museums,
libraries and archives across England. The founding aims were to raise
the profile of these vital collections and encourage safeguarding of them.
Designated collections benefit in numerous ways.
During 2013-15 the Designation Scheme was reviewed and in 2014 we
published Pearls and wisdom, our vision for the future of the Scheme.
The review reasserted the founding principles of national significance
and quality as key attributes of a Designated collection.
Cover images
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1. Crown. Photo:
Kensington Royal Palace.
2. Page from the Cologne
Chronicle, 1499. Photo:
Chetham’s Library.
3. Landscape with a
Rainbow, by Joseph Wright
of Derby, 1794. Photo:
Derby Museum and Art
Gallery.
4. Copper Mask. Photo:
University of Cambridge
Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology.
5. Tin miners. Photo:
Cornwall Record Office.
6. Ming Dynasty Guardians,
c.1400, Compton Verney.
Photo: Daniel Salter.
7. Tyne & Wear Archives.
Photo: Peter Skelton.
8. Islamic Astrolabe, pre
1636, Museum of the
History of Science, Oxford
University. Photo: Keiko
Ikenchi.
9. Page from a cookery
book. Photo: Leeds
University Library.
3
East Midlands
Derby Museum and Art Gallery
The Joseph Wright of Derby collection
This collection, relating to the celebrated 18th century Derby artist Joseph Wright,
Associate of the Royal Academy (1734-97), comprises 34 oil paintings and over 300
drawings and prints, original frames, personalia and related documents. The paintings
include portraits, landscapes, subjects from literature and scenes of industry and
scientific equipment that represent this exciting period of pioneering discovery. This is
the largest collection of the artist’s work in any public gallery in the world, public or private.
Joseph Wright has been acclaimed as ‘the first professional painter to express the spirit
of the Industrial Revolution’. His paintings of the birth of science out of alchemy, often
based on the meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of very influential scientists and
industrialists living in the English Midlands, are a significant record of the struggle of
science against religious values in the period known as the Age of Enlightenment.
All of Wright’s interests are represented in Derby’s collection, ranging from scientific
discovery and experimentation, industry and landscapes, through to literature, the
classics and contemporary history.
Lincolnshire Archives
The Lincoln episcopal rolls and registers
The size of the pre-Reformation Diocese of Lincoln makes this a key archive for English
history from the mid-13th century onwards, especially up to the Reformation in 1542.
The collections are nationally important and reflect the international nature of preReformation England.
The national significance of the collection particularly stems from the episcopal rolls
of Bishop Hugh of Wells which are the earliest surviving examples of their kind, and
they contain details relating to diocesan property, ordinations (up to 1820), inductions
of clergy to benefices, changes to parishes, appointments of diocesan officials,
memoranda, royal writs etc. Registers up to the 16th century
also include copies of wills and other probate material.
Two early episcopal rolls..
Photo: Lincolnshire Archives.
National Tramway Museum
The entire holdings
Home to over 70 trams and a host of associated equipment, the museum has sought
to acquire an example of each important stage in the evolution of the British tramcar, a
vehicle that dramatically influenced the growth of towns and cities. Significant foreign
tramcars are also included. Selected tramcars are operated in a period street setting,
thus allowing trackwork and overhead fittings to be viewed by the public in context.
This is complemented by 16,000 square feet of exhibitions.
The extensive library, archive, photographic and postcard collections, with material
which ranges from company records and contemporary journals to personal items such
as uniforms and papers, provides a source for the technical, social and economic history
of urban transport world-wide.
4
East Midlands
Northampton Central Museum and Art Gallery
Geta sandal, Japan, 1963.
Photo: Northampton Central
Museum and Art Gallery. .
The boot and shoe collection
The boot and shoe collection held at Northampton’s Central Museum and Art
Gallery is one of the most extensive collections of its kind in the world. It includes
everything from Roman and Medieval footwear to the work of contemporary
designers and reflects the vital role of Northampton in the history of shoemaking.
As well as footwear the collection includes: shoemaking tools and machines;
accessories such as buckles, button hooks and polish; fine and decorative art
depicting shoes and shoemaking, and documentary material including trade
catalogues and journals, books, documents, and photographs. Associated indexes
include an index of shoemakers and shoemaking firms, and an index of shoes which
are concealed in buildings for luck.
Nottingham City Museums and Galleries
The Lace Machinery and Lace Collections
These collections tell a distinctive story of the city’s industrial and textile past, and
explain how a domestic craft became an important mass market commodity. The
lace industry was at the cutting edge of technology, one which moved production
and people away from the home and countryside, and into factories in the new
urban environment. In the process it made the town of Nottingham world famous
as the centre of the trade. Whilst important both culturally and aesthetically, lace’s
primary significance lies in its being the first machine mass produced luxury goods.
The development of the industry can be regarded as a key element in what can be
called the ‘democratization of taste’ - permitting beautiful products of a consistent,
repeatable qualilty to be created, making them inexpensive and available to all.
University of Nottingham
The Portland (London), Portland of Welbeck and Newcastle of Clumber
The archive collections of the Portland family comprise familial, estate, political
and literary papers from the 12th to the 20th centuries. These collections relate to
both the dukedoms for Newcastle upon Tyne and Newcastle under Lyne, and are of
outstanding significance for the study of how these families influenced the political,
literary and economic history of England.
The papers are particularly interesting for their breadth of content, which includes
urban estates, minerals, port and railway developments, law suits, and both great
wealth and great debt.
The D H Lawrence collection
This collection forms one of the major international research resources for the study
of D H Lawrence (1885-1930) and is particularly strong in original material relating
to his native Nottinghamshire. The collection clearly demonstrates the significant
cultural impact of Lawrence on the latter half of 20th century, including that on the
publishing industry, and demonstrates his status as a figure of both national and
international importance.
5
East Midlands
The Canal and River Trust
The Canal Museum The entire holdings
The museum charts the fascinating story of the inland waterways of the British Isles,
from the 18th century to the present day. The collection includes objects painted
by boatmen in the traditional ‘Roses and Castles’ style, costumes worn by boating
families, waterways souvenirs from the 1950s, a large collection of photographs
and extensive archive material such as canal company share certificates. Splendidly
located within a 19th century warehouse, in what was once a busy working dock,
the museum houses many examples of sacks, pulleys and dockside tools. Located
on the surrounding quayside are floating exhibits that include a Victorian narrow
boat, a steam dredger and a concrete barge. All collections at the Canal Museum, the
National Waterways Museum, and the Waterways Museum at Gloucester Docks are
Designated.
Please note: this Designated collection is held on several sites;
these sites also appear in the North West and South West lists.
6
East
The Britten-Pears Library
The entire holdings
The Britten-Pears Library is an outstanding music archive and library of national and
international significance. It is centred on the papers of Benjamin Britten and Peter
Pears, but its scope is much wider than these two individuals, providing a broad context
for the development of 20th century music in the United Kingdom.
Britten was one of the foremost composers of the 20th century and developed a creative
partnership with the tenor Peter Pears which both inspired Britten’s music and led to the
founding of the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival.
Colchester Castle Museum
Sculptures of Britten and Pears.
Photo: Britten-Pears Library.
The archaeology collections
Colchester Castle is an award-winning museum featuring many hands-on displays to
help explain the townspeople’s experience of Colchester’s varying fortunes.
A visit to Colchester Castle Museum takes you through 2,000 years of the most
important events in British History. Once the capital of Roman Britain, Colchester has
experienced devastation by Boudica (Boadicea), invasion by the Normans and Siege
during the English Civil War.
Colchester Museums were Designated in respect of their outstanding archaeology
collections. Among the many objects to note are the famous Colchester Vase and the
tombstone of the Roman Centurian Marcus Favonius Facilis. The extensive archaeology
collections are of superb quality and reflect the central role played by Colchester at the
start of Britain’s recorded history.
Norfolk Record Office
All collections relating to the history of Norfolk
The Norfolk Record Office collects and preserves records of historical significance for the
county of Norfolk and makes them accessible to as wide a range of people as possible.
The Record Office’s collections (circa 12.5 million documentary items) date from the 11th
century to the present day, and are among the largest for any county record office in the
UK. This reflects the exceptional wealth and population density of Norfolk in the middle
ages, and its stability thereafter. Many individual collections are outstanding examples
of their kind; together, they constitute an unrivalled source which underpins the study of
almost every aspect of life in Norfolk during the last millennium.
7
East
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The entire holdings
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery reflects the importance of the city, one of
England’s richest and largest settlements from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.
Some of the displays are in the magnificent Norman Keep, which was built as a royal
castle, the most ambitious secular building of its generation in Western Europe.
The museum has comprehensive collections of the Norwich School of Artists, 18th
century Lowestoft porcelain and a world-beating assemblage of nearly 3,000 British
teapots. Prominent amongst the collections are birds and butterflies from around
the world, and Britain’s biggest, oldest and most complete fossil elephant. There is
outstanding Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon archaeology and much of the Snettisham
Treasure, the largest collection of Iron Age gold neck rings from Europe.
University of Cambridge
Churchill Archives Centre
The entire holdings
The Churchill Archives Centre was purpose-built in 1973 to house Sir Winston Churchill’s
Papers - some 3,000 boxes of letters and documents ranging from his first childhood
letters, via his great war-time speeches, to the writings which earned him the Nobel
Prize for Literature.
The Churchill Papers served as the inspiration and the starting point for a larger
endeavour - the creation of a wide-ranging archive of the Churchill era and after,
covering those fields of public life in which Sir Winston played a personal role or took a
personal interest.
Archive material. Photo:
University of Cambridge Churchill
Archives Centre.
Today the collection comprises papers of other leading politicians, diplomats, civil
servants, military commanders and scientists. They form an incomparable documentary
treasure trove. A recent acquisition of major significance is the collection of Lady
Thatcher’s personal and political papers.
University of Cambridge
Fitzwilliam Museum
The entire holdings
The Fitzwilliam Museum has magnificent permanent collections of international
importance, including antiquities from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome; English and
European pottery and glass; furniture, clocks, fans, armour, coins, medals, manuscripts
and rare printed books; paintings, including masterpieces by Simone Martini, Titian,
Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Constable, Monet and Picasso, portrait miniatures and 20th
century art, and changing displays of drawings, watercolours and prints. Few museums
in the world contain on a single site collections of such variety and depth.
The Museum was founded in 1816 by Richard, VII Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion who, in
1816, bequeathed his works of art and library, together with funds to house them, to the
University of Cambridge to further “the Increase of Learning and other great Objects of
that Noble Foundation”.The collection is housed in splendid buildings, the first of which,
designed by George Basevi opened in 1848.
8
East
University of Cambridge
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The entire holdings
This museum was founded in 1884 on the basis of two important collections: the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society collection relating to British archaeology; and
anthropological artefacts from the South Seas acquired by, among others, the museum’s
first curator, Baron Anatole von Hügel.
The collections now comprise approximately half a million archaeological items and
over 150,000 ethnographic objects. Most have been acquired through Cambridge-based
research and are exceptionally well documented. The strengths of the archaeological
collections include their worldwide scope and the extensive Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
material.
Important anthropological collections include artefacts from Cook’s first voyage to the
Pacific in 1769 and artefacts and photographs from the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to
the Torres Strait.
University of Cambridge
Museum of Zoology
The entire holdings
The museum’s collections date back to 1814, and draw many of the earlier specimens
from the great collecting expeditions of the 19th century, including Charles Darwin’s
‘Beagle’ voyage.
Madagascan Sunset Moth,
University of Cambridge Museum
of Zoology. Photo: Russel
Stebbings.
The collections, which rank amongst the finest in the world, represent all major animal
groups and contain a high proportion of scientifically important material such as
types and holotypes, particularly noteworthy insect and mollusc material, and fine
examples of extinct fauna such as the Great Auk, Thylacine, fossil tetrapods and giant
marine reptiles. They provide essential baseline data from which to assess the current
distribution and status of global species, and comprise a unique record for use by public
and academics alike.
University of Cambridge
St John’s College
The Old Library collection
The Old Library dates back to 1624 and houses St John’s College’s magnificent and
nationally recognised research collections. These collections are consulted by scholars
from all over the world. The upper, original part of the Old Library is still very much as it
was in the 17th century.
The collection covers books, manuscripts (Medieval, post-Medieval, Oriental and
papyrus), personal papers, maps, photographs, artefacts, and early and rare printed
books. The Library also houses a cohesive and meaningful collection of college alumni
papers. Miscellanea held at the Library includes an astronomical clock by John Shelton,
a 14th century French ivory plaque depicting the crucifixion, an Egyptian scarab ring, a
set of silver oriental bowls, busts of William Wordsworth and Thomas Gisborne, Samuel
Butler’s sheep-brand, and Sir Fred Hoyle’s telescope and ice axes.
9
East
University of Cambridge
Sedgwick Museum of Geology
The entire holdings
With a collection of more than 1.3 million specimens, this museum has grown from the
1728 bequest of the collection of Dr John Woodward.
One of the earliest and most complete geological collections and housed in its original
17th century cabinets, this remains a highlight of the museum. The museum now
holds highly significant palaeontological, petrological and mineral material, much of it
collected under the aegis of Professor Adam Sedgwick, who was elected Woodwardian
Chair of Geology in 1818. His own work, and his close links with major scientists and
fossil collectors of his time, including Charles Darwin and Mary Anning, contributed
enormously to the development of the museum.
Iguanodon.
Photo: University of Cambridge
Sedgwick Museum of Geology.
University of Cambridge
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
The entire holdings
The Designated collections of this museum play a central role in the teaching and
research of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science.
Visitors can see a variety of displays created by staff and students. Microscopes and
telescopes, sundials, early slide rules, pocket electronic calculators, teaching and
demonstration apparatus, scientific toys, and laboratory equipment are included in
the collections. The holdings represent diverse but inter-related scientific and cultural
activities over a broad span of time.
The Whipple Museum supports and encourages a wide range of people in the study of
the history of science in its material and cultural contexts, including school children and
enthusiasts, historians, philosophers and practising scientists.
10
London
The Baring Archive
The entire holdings
The Baring Archive is one of the finest archives of a financial institution anywhere in
the world and is a vital resource for England’s economic and business history. The
archive contains material from the establishment in 1762 of the London merchant
house of John & Francis Baring & Co, later known as Baring Brothers, right through to
the firm’s acquisition by ING in 1995. The firm’s business was international from the
outset of the company, with clients based in all the major international trading centres.
Correspondence received from overseas agents and stored in the archive provides
graphic accounts of the economy, politics and society of innumerable countries.
BT Heritage
BT Archives
BT Archives documents the leading role that BT and its predecessors have played in
communications technology development; the provision of communications services
around the country and across the globe; their profound influence on society; and their
impact on improving people’s lives.
The collections include the records of BT itself (including photographs and film),
records of the Post Office telecommunications function, and archives of the private
telephone and telegraph companies taken over by the Post Office in the 19th and early
20th centuries. The collections document the development of the UK communications
infrastructure and services to overseas from its earliest days, as well as major milestones
such as the development of transatlantic communications from the earliest telegraph
service to satellites and fibre optic cables.
Archive material. Photo: BT
Archives.
Corporation of London
The History of London collection
The Corporation of London Library specialises in the history of the City of London (the
Square Mile), but also collects material on the rest of Greater London. The subjects
covered in the collections range from breweries to football clubs, Mayfair madams to
Jack the Ripper, and reflect the globalisation of the economy and culture since the 18th
century.
The manuscripts section of Guildhall Library is the local record office for the City of
London. Its holdings date from the 11th century and include the archives of the Diocese
of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, the City wards and parishes, and around 80 of the City
livery companies.
The collections also include family and estate records and the records of several
foundations which originated in the City of London, for example Christ’s Hospital
school and the Corporation of Trinity House. In keeping with its location, it also holds
considerable business and commercial archives, including those of the London Stock
Exchange, the London Chamber of Commerce, Lloyd’s of London and numerous
merchant banks, insurance companies, stockbrokers, merchants and trading companies.
11
London
Courtauld Institute Gallery
The entire holdings
All the Courtauld Gallery’s collections are Designated and are characterised by quality,
richness and variety within the broad field of western fine and applied arts from circa
1300 to the present day. The collections of European paintings include examples of
the work of many of the great masters, with the work of Rubens and Tiepolo being
represented in depth.
The collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, assembled by Samuel
Courtauld, is especially famous, as are the drawing collections of Robert Witt and
Antoine Seilern. The provenance of many of the Gallery’s objects is fascinating: the
Rubens ‘Landscape by Moonlight’ formerly belonged to Joshua Reynolds and before
that possibly to James Boswell; Gauguin’s ‘Nevermore’ was purchased by Frederick Delius
soon after it was painted.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The entire holdings
The paintings in this collection are housed in England’s first purpose-built art gallery,
designed by Sir John Soane in 1811.
The remarkable story of the Gallery’s foundation adds another dimension to its special
charm. The collection was put together by two art dealers, Noel Desenfans and Sir
Francis Bourgeois, for the King of Poland.
When the king was forced to abdicate in 1795 it was left in their hands and subsequently
bequeathed to Dulwich College ‘for the inspection of the public’. In this way England’s
first public art gallery was founded. The founders are still buried on site in the
mausoleum and the collection is still here to enjoy.
Girl at a Window by Rembrandt.
Photo: Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The collection is unmatched for a gallery of this size: three Rembrants, seven Poussins,
11 Rubenses, seven Gainsboroughs, four Murillos, two Claudes, two Canalettos and a
Watteau.
English Folk Dance and Song Society
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library is the library and archive of the English Folk
Dance and Song Society. Established in 1930 with the opening of Cecil Sharp House
in London, it is now a multi-media archive which is claimed to be England’s national
collection for the folk arts. Of particular significance are its paper archives, containing
major collections from the ‘Golden Age’ of fieldwork in the years leading up to the First
World War. These include the papers of Lucy Broadwood, George Butterworth, Anne
Geddes Gilchrist, Maud Karpeles, Mary Neal, George Gardiner and Henry Hammond, plus
additional papers of Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger. The Library
also holds a significant audio-visual collection (including phonograph recordings dating
back to 1909 and Kinora films of the same vintage), an estimated 20,000 photographic
images and printed literature dating from 1600 to the present day.
12
London
Firepower, The Royal Artillery Museum
The entire holdings
Firepower holds an international collection of guns, rockets, missiles and vehicles
spanning over 600 years of development worldwide. Including prototypes and models,
it was used to teach cadets in the 18th century and has been displayed to the public
since 1820 in the Museum of Artillery in the Rotunda. In May 2001, much of the
ordnance and all of the library and archive were moved to newly developed premises
where they are more accessible to the public, fully interpreted, and better preserved. The
new development, called Firepower, displays all of the collections of the Royal Regiment
of Artillery together with interactives and hands-on exhibits to explain the science of
artillery. The historic rotunda building houses the reserve collection and is open one day
a week.
The collection of ordnance continues to expand as technology is constantly updated.
The library and archive, in the James Clavell Library, provide an important research
resource. These collections are supported by a wealth of artefacts, paintings and medals
which tell the human story.
Horniman Museum and Gardens
The musical instruments collections and ethnographic collections
The ethnographic and musical instrument holdings rank among the two or three largest
collections of their type in the UK. The ethnographic collections, numbering some
80,000 items, contain substantial material from all five continents, including important
folk art from all over Europe, nearly 17,000 objects from Africa, and 30,000 from Asia. The
musical instrument collections, amounting to some 8,000 artefacts from cultures all over
the world and all periods of history, is probably the most comprehensive in the country.
In the last 40 years, the museum acquired much of its holdings from field research
targeted at areas not well represented in other UK collections. The museum has a
programme of temporary exhibitions, education and loans to ensure that knowledge
about its collections is readily available to the widest possible audience.
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Hunterian Museum Collection, Library and Archive
At the heart of the Hunterian Museum is an astonishing 18th century medical collection.
It is the legacy of the anatomist and surgeon John Hunter FRS (1728-1793), who built up
an extensive museum which he used for teaching and for research on topics as diverse
as the transplantation of teeth and the breeding of bees.
The collection reflects Hunter’s wide-ranging network of correspondents, students and
patrons - including Joseph Banks, Edward Jenner and Queen Charlotte - and contains
paintings by artists such as George Stubbs and Benjamin West. After Hunter’s death
his collection was given to The Royal College of Surgeons, where over 3,500 Hunterian
preparations are still displayed alongside many more gathered over the course of the
last two centuries.
Crocodile and egg. Photo:
Hunterian Museum at the Royal
College of Surgeons.
13
London
The Institution of Civil Engineers
The library, archive, and works of art
The Institution of Civil Engineers’ library is recognised as the first civil engineering library
in the UK. It offers unrivalled subject coverage of: structures, soil and rock mechanics;
engineering materials; irrigation, drainage, water and wastewater systems; transport
engineering in all forms; urban and rural planning; as well as management, power,
energy, health and safety, and contract administration and law. The library holds over
130,000 titles and is one of the largest specialist resources on civil engineering in the
world.
Institution of Engineering and Technology
Photograph of the engineering
staff on the Severn Railway
Bridge, by George Keeling, 1870s.
Photo: Institution of Civil
Engineers.
The entire holdings
The Institute of Engineering and Technology Library is a world-class collection of
digital and printed resources on all areas of engineering and technology. It specialises
in electrical, electronic, control and manufacturing engineering, telecommunications,
computing and IT. The archive has collected and preserved the Institute’s records since
its foundation in 1871, and also holds collections related to the history of science,
engineering and technology since the 14th century. It holds a range of media covering
manuscripts, printed materials, films, photographs, technical drawings, maps, and plans.
The highlights of the collections include the papers of Michael Faraday, Sir Francis
Ronalds and Oliver Heaviside. There is also a large corporate archive recording the
activities of a number of engineering businesses since the early 19th century and the
archive of the Women’s Engineering Society.
Jewish Museum
The Ritual Judaica collection
The collections held by The Jewish Museum are unique in the UK for their rich
representation of items of Judaica, in particular with an English provenance. The
collections of the museum as a whole are of a high quality, but there are some
particularly rare items within the Designated collection of Jewish ceremonial art, which
is considered among the finest in the world. Highlights include a 16th century Venetian
synagogue ark and magnificent silver Torah ornaments from the Great Synagogue in
Duke’s Place, City of London, destroyed during the Blitz.
In addition, the museum has an outstanding collection of synagogue textiles, metalwork
and illuminated manuscripts reflecting Jewish religious life and practice, and tells the
story of Jewish history in Britain from the Norman conquest until recent times.
14
London
Kensington Royal Palace
Royal ceremonial dress collection
Through its 12,000 items, the Royal ceremonial dress collection tells the story of British
monarchy. It falls into three main parts: clothes worn by members of the royal family
from the 17th century to today; uniforms worn by people performing official roles
in British court ritual; and fashionable dress worn by the people who attended court
functions at the royal palaces from circa 1700-1958. The collection also emphasises the
role of the trades-people who made the costumes.
The collection: acts as an outward manifestation of the significance of royalty and
governing institutions in Europe; gives insights into important events in the nation’s
history; and helps to explain the complex hierarchy of courtly life.
The collection includes the UK’s most extensive grouping of men’s court uniform, the
best British collection of court mantuas (enormous dresses which were the ‘uniform’ of
the Georgian court), and the intimate items worn by some of Britain’s most charismatic
royals: George III, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales.
King’s College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
Founded in 1964 the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives is a leading repository for
research into modern defence policy in Britain - its strategy, planning, and conduct. The
archives contain the papers of over 700 of the 20th century’s senior defence personnel,
authors and commentators, and cover all wars, campaigns and peacekeeping initiatives
in which British forces were engaged.
The collections comprise many types of material: diaries, correspondence, working
papers and files, texts of lectures, unpublished memoirs, audio and video tapes of
events and recollections, transcripts of interviews, photographs, maps and plans, and
press cuttings. The archive is of national and international significance to the study of
the First and Second World Wars.
Lambeth Palace Library
The entire holdings
Lambeth Palace Library is the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of
Canterbury. As such it holds the manuscripts and printed books of the archiepiscopal
collections and is the principal repository of the documentary history of the Church of
England. Its collections have been freely available for research since 1610.
The records held date from the ninth century to the present day, and their broad scope
reflects the office of Archbishop as head of the province of Canterbury and leader of the
Church of England and the Anglican Communion worldwide. They also show the wealth
and power of Archbishops in previous centuries which enabled them to collect books
and manuscripts of the highest quality and significance.
The Gutenburg Bible.
Photo: Lambeth Palace Library.
The collection is of national and international importance to the understanding of
organised religion and the influence of the Church of England on the life of the nation.
15
London
The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Freemasons Hall
The entire holdings
These collections illustrate the international, social and ethnic diversity of the
Freemasons’ membership, including royalty, public figures, scientists and writers. The
museum contains an extensive collection of objects with Masonic decoration including:
pottery and porcelain; glassware; silver; furniture and clocks; jewels; and regalia. Items
belonging to famous and Royal Freemasons including Winston Churchill and Edward VII
are on display, together with examples from the museum’s extensive collection of prints
and engravings, photographs and ephemera.
Papier-mache snuff box,
1846, Library and Museum of
Freemasonry .
Photo: Painton Cowen.
The library and archives contain a comprehensive collection of printed books and
manuscripts on Freemasonry throughout the world, as well as subjects associated with
Freemasonry or with mystical and esoteric traditions.
Linnean Society of London
The entirety of the Linnean Society’s library, archive and biological specimen collections
The Linnean Society Collections comprise a world renowned library (in all languages,
with especially strong collections of eighteenth and nineteenth century titles) and
collections of plant and animal specimens, books, letters, portraits and art including
items collected by some of history’s most famous scientists, such as Carl Linnaeus,
Sir James Edward Smith, Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin and Sir Joseph Banks.
The Linnean Society of London was set up in 1788 by one of the most pre-eminent
British botanists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, namely James Edward Smith,
following his acquisition and bringing to the UK of the personal collections of the great
Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who created the binomial system (genus & species)
of biological classification now used throughout the world. Linnaeus is therefore
acknowledged as the father of classification and thus modern natural history and is
called “the prince of botanists”. The Linnaean Collections comprise biological specimens
(14,000 plants, 3,198 insects, 158 fish and 1,564 shells, including the first ever cultured
pearls) together with the personal Library of Linnaeus (some 1,600 volumes which he
used as reference material, many of them given to him by fellow naturalists and admirers
all over the world), his letters and manuscripts, and those of his son. The significance
of the Linnaean Collections lies in the fact that they contain many “type” specimens –
these are the actual specimens upon which the first valid scientific description of the
particular species is based, and as such are a vital reference for modern-day science and
scientists, especially taxonomists (who name species) and systematists (who consider
relationships of species). The Society has been at the heart of many scientific and
cultural developments relating to our understanding of the natural world: most notably,
Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel Wallace’s epoch-making papers on the theory of
evolution by natural selection were first read at a meeting of the Society.
16
London
London Transport Museum
The entire holdings
This museum’s wide-ranging collections, including vehicles, posters, uniforms,
photographs, film, architectural fragments, engineering drawings and oral testimonies
are all Designated. The wealth of material is used to chart the development of the
first public transport system in a major city. Of special significance among the vehicle
collection is a locomotive and carriage from the City and South London Railway of
1890, the first underground electric railway in the world. The reserve collections are
now accessible to the public at the Depot, the museum’s open-access store, whilst more
information about the collections continues to be made available through the museum’s
website and electronic databases.
A view of the Museum.
Photo: London Transport
Museum.
London School of Economics and Political Science
The British Library of Political and Economic Science and the Women’s Library @ LSE
The library collects social sciences material in the widest sense, with subject matter
including economics, statistics, political science and public administration. The library’s
archive collections offer unique primary source material of outstanding value for
research into British political, economic and social history, social anthropology (mainly
post-1890) and the history of philosophy.
Individual collections include government publications, political caricatures, campaign
flyers, posters, books and journals. The collection of 90,000 pamphlets covers areas of
political, economic, social and international history, and public affairs. Areas of particular
strength include transport history, housing, the Welfare State, and the Poor Laws.
The Women’s Library @ LSE documents all aspects of women’s lives, with a particular
emphasis on the great political, economic and social changes since the mid-19th
century. The collection covers a variety of topics, such as women’s rights, suffrage,
sexuality, health, education, employment, the family and the home, and tell the history
of activism from the campaigner’s perspective. Unrivalled in scope, the print collection
includes over 60,000 books and pamphlets and 3,000 periodical titles. The archive and
museum collection includes over 500 archives and 5,000 museum objects including
photographs, posters, badges, banners, textiles and ceramics.
17
London
Middlesex University
Museum of Design and Domestic Architecture
The Silver Studio collection
The Silver Studio collection is the archive of one of Britain’s leading commercial design
studios active between 1880 and 1963. The collection contains over 40,000 original
designs on paper, 5,000 wallpaper samples, 5,000 textile samples, pattern books, and the
studio’s working records (including letters, diaries, reference material and trade cards).
The Silver Studio was always responsive to the fashions and tastes of the moment,
designing in all the major styles such as the flat stylised Art Nouveau of the late 19th
century, as well as perennially popular traditional and historical styles. Its work provides
a vivid insight into pattern design in the English home between 1880 and 1960.
The comprehensiveness of the Silver Studio collection makes it relevant both nationally
and internationally for research covering subjects as broad as business and labour
history, consumption of domestic furnishing, marketing and the history of studio
practice.
Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands
The entire holdings
The Museum of London charts the history of the capital and its people from the
prehistoric period to the present day. Its galleries and exhibitions make sensitive use of
both traditional and modern interactive techniques, and the museum has long been
committed to educational and outreach services.
The extensive collections contain highly significant ranges of archaeological material
from London, and include the London Archaeological Archive of finds and records
from over 25 years of excavations. Social and working history collections; costume
and decorative arts; and paintings, pictures and photographs illustrate London’s
development since 1700, and the museum’s contemporary collecting policy seeks to
reflect the ever-changing pattern of life in London.
Marble head of Mithras. Photo:
Museum of London.
University College London
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
The entire holdings
The Petrie Museum’s collection - numbering over 80,000 objects - covers the full range
of Egypt’s complex history from Palaeolithic to Islamic times, and includes artefacts from
all types of archaeological sites in Egypt. It is largely based on the artefact collections
gathered by the pioneering archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie on his many excavations,
and includes his own detailed documentation.
Spectacular decorative objects - including pottery, mosaics and superb funerary
portraits, are complemented by a comprehensive collection of everyday objects, from
tools and weapons to weights and measures, and from garments to cooking vessels.
Collections of geological, botanical, zoological and some mummified human material
help to give a complete picture of the ancient Egyptian world.
18
London
Royal Academy of Arts
‘A Mermaid’ by John Hammond,
oil on canvas. Photo: Royal
Academy of Arts.
The collections, library and archive
The Royal Academy is a highly important part of British national cultural history, holding
rich and varied collections which include many spectacular items. The collections,
library and archive reflect the Royal Academy’s membership and its pedagogic role,
encompassing a broad range of subject matter which reflects the prime identifiers
of British Art since the mid-18th century: historical and mythological subjects; genre
scenes; images of work and industry; landscapes; flora and fauna, and abstract works.
Religious subjects are represented both in works by British artists and in full scale,
historical copies after the Old Masters. Illustrations of literary texts are extensively
represented in paintings, prints, drawings and in the Special Illustrated Books Collection;
notable examples include Flaxman’s illustrations to Homer and Boydell’s Shakespeare
Gallery. These holdings provide a complete and coherent record of the Royal Academy
as well as wider institutional art which is relevant to the study of any aspect of British art
within the Academy’s history.
Royal Academy of Music
The special collections and archives of the Royal Academy of Music library
The library’s historical collections make it a recognised centre for academic research.
The collection contains early printed and manuscript music and books dating from the
16th century to the present day. This is a rich collection of pedagogical, institutional and
social history dating back to the foundation of Britain’s earliest musical college in the
1820s. Any study of the history of music pedagogy in Britain, especially in the last two
centuries, would be incomplete without reference to this archive.
The library has over 125,000 items, including significant collections of early printed and
manuscript materials. It also houses a Sir Arthur Sullivan archive, a Sir Henry Wood archive
and the Robert Spencer collection of early English song and music for lute and guitar.
Among the library’s most valuable possessions are the manuscripts of Purcell’s The Fairy
Queen, Sullivan’s The Mikado, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and
Serenade to Music, and the newly-discovered Handel Gloria.
Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British
Geographers)
All geographical collections
The Geographical Society of London was founded in 1830 as an institution to promote
the advancement of geographical science. Under the patronage of King William IV, it later
became known as The Royal Geographical Society and was granted its Royal Charter
under Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1912, the society moved to its current location, Lowther
Lodge.The society’s purpose remains the same today as when it was first founded,
namely the ‘advancement of geographical science’. It enshrines such famous names as
Livingstone, Stanley, Scott, Shackleton, Hunt and Hillary.
The Designated collection includes cartographic material, the picture library, the library
material, the archives, and artefacts. These collections are essential for the study of the history
of exploration, discovery, mountaineering and modern geography. They also offer a unique
access point to the understanding of cultural exchange and encounter around the world.
19
London
Royal Horticultural Society
Lindley Library
The Lindley Library is the world’s finest horticultural library, with books, journals,
pictures and a unique collection of botanical art covering subjects such as horticulture,
practical gardening, garden history, garden plants and design from 1514 to the present
day and relating to the British Isles and beyond.
A significant collection of nursery catalogues, postcards, garden guides and ephemera
provides a unique insight into the social history of gardening, and an important part of
our nation’s cultural heritage. The collection of horticultural trade catalogues conveys
much about plant history and gardening trends. These collections are important
historical records and are of use to historians, researchers and vital to the Society’s
botanists.
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
The British Architecture Library
The RIBA British Architectural collection is the largest and most comprehensive resource
in the UK for research and information on all aspects of architecture, and is one of the
finest collections of architectural material in the world.
The library was established in 1834 as part of the newly-founded Royal Institute of
British Architects. The collections are extensive, and comprise the Sir Banister Fletcher
Library of books and periodicals, drawings, archives and photographs.
A wide spectrum of international subjects is represented, ranging from prehistory to
the present. In addition to architectural theory, practice and history, there is material
on associated subjects such as building and construction, civil engineering, structural
engineering, landscape architecture, interior design and decoration, the decorative arts,
town and country planning, and construction law.
The British Postal Museum and Archive
Proposed coronation stamp of
Edward VIII, never issued,1936.
Photo: British Postal Museum and
Archive.
The Royal Mail Archive
The Post Office (now Royal Mail Group Limited) is a public business which has affected
countless everyday lives for nearly 400 years and helped to shape the modern world.
The British Postal Museum & Archive illuminates the lives of people in the Post Office,
and the messages carried by Royal Mail. All aspects of the organisation’s unique history,
from employment records to stamp artwork, are held within The Royal Mail Archive, one
of the oldest business archives in the world.
The Designated collection includes employment records and staff magazines, business
records, Postmaster General’s papers, wartime history records and original stamp
artwork. The collection is outstanding in terms of its evidential, historical and cultural
value, and represents comprehensive and complete coverage of the role the Post
Office has played in employment history, overseas expansion, communications and
community cohesion.
20
London
Sir John Soane’s Museum
The entire holdings
The house, museum and library of the celebrated architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837)
at No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London has been a public museum since the early 19th
century.
Soane acquired, demolished and rebuilt three houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields between
1792 and 1837 to house his extensive collections. These include antiquities, paintings
(by Canaletto, Hogarth, Turner and many early 19th century artists), furniture,
architectural fragments, casts, architectural drawings, models, and much else, arranged
in an ‘inspirational’ way in Soane’s picturesque and ‘poetic’ interiors. All the collections of
the Museum are Designated as, together with the house itself, they constitute a unique
surviving example of an early private house museum.
Wellcome Trust
All collections within the Wellcome Library
The Wellcome Library is founded on the collections formed by Henry Solomon Wellcome
(1853-1936), whose personal wealth, gained through the pharmaceutical company
that he developed and owned, allowed him to spend the last four decades of his life
indulging one of the most ambitious collecting visions of the 20th century. Wellcome’s
primary collecting interest was the history of medicine, but he interpreted this subject
in an extremely broad manner, including not only ancillary subjects like alchemy and
witchcraft, but also anthropology and ethnography.
Illustration from Histoires
Prodigieuses, showing ‘monstrous’
female twins, 1559.
Photo: Wellcome Trust.
Through its collections and services, the Wellcome Library provides insight and
information to anyone seeking to understand medicine and its role in society, past and
present. The library’s collections include over 750,000 books and journals, an extensive
range of manuscripts, archives, films, and more than 250,000 pictures. The collections
are outstanding as a historical, evidential and cultural resource of national and
international importance in the field of the history of medicine.
Westminster Libraries and Archives
The Art and Design collection
The Art and Design collection at Westminster Libraries and Archives was Designated
because of its centrality to the study of the decorative and fine arts both nationally and
internationally.
The collection consists of over 40,000 volumes, covering painting, drawing, antiques,
installations, fashion, furniture, architecture, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, jewellery,
graphics, gardens, and interiors. It also houses a wide range of art magazines including
cutting edge titles such as Wallpaper, Flash Art, I-D, Artforum and Blueprint as well as
long backfiles of Apollo, Burlington, Country Life and Vogue.
21
North East
Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum
The entire holdings
Beamish, founded in 1970 to illustrate the development of industry, agriculture and
the way of life in the North East of England, is situated in 300 acres of woodland and
farmland. Home Farm, a fine 19th century model farmstead, and Pockerley Manor, with
its medieval stronghouse dating to the 1400s, are both Listed Buildings preserved in
situ. Other typical buildings brought together represent an early 1900s town, colliery
village, farm and railway, linked by an electric tramway.
The early 1800s period is represented by Pockerley Manor and an exhibit on Early
Railways. The museum’s collections are all Designated and include a photographic
archive, a trade catalogue collection, folk art, agriculture and transport items.
Bowes Museum
The Entire Holdings
This collection contains paintings, ceramics, items of woodwork, objets d’art and textiles.
Before Josephine’s death in 1874, John Bowes and his French wife had amassed some
15,000 objects of all types of European fine and decorative arts from the period 14001870. The bills for this collecting activity survive in the museum’s archive. Acquisitions
made more recently, such as the Enid Goldblatt collection of porcelain, have reinforced
the continental feel of the museum.
Durham University Library
The Bishop Cosin’s Library and The Sudan Archive
The Bishop Cosin’s Library is still housed in its original building and, as an integral
element of the World Heritage Site, has significance for the history of libraries and for
ecclesiastical history both locally and nationally.
The Sudan Archive is indispensable to the study of the Sudan in the period of British
administration. It is significant to British national life through its illustration of the
impact of the colonial power on the country at many levels of administration.
Chesterholm Museum - Vindolanda
The Vindolanda Trust Collection
Chesterholm Museum’s unique Vindolanda collection is central to our understanding
not only of life at the frontier fort of Vindolanda but, more generally, of life on the
northern frontier of Roman Britain, and of the Roman army internationally. The
Vindolanda writing tablets are probably the most famous objects to come from the
site and they throw an invaluable light on the lives of the people of Vindolanda. These
documents make up the oldest known archive of written material from Britain. The
collection is also rich in organic materials due to the exceptional soil conditions. These
include shoes, bags, wagon axles, parts of furniture, animal bones, a wig and a child’s
sock.
22
North East
Durham University Oriental Museum
Egyptian and Chinese collections
The Egyptian collection is one of the best Egyptology resources in Britain. It ranges from
the Pre-Dynastic to the Coptic periods in date and includes a wide selection of objects
ranging from monumental sculpture to woven sandals. Numerous items of exceptional
quality and international significance are included. Particular highlights are a unique
18th Dynasty boxwood carving of a Nubian servant girl; the 18th Dynasty polychrome
sycamore boxes of Perpawty; and a fine 13th Dynasty granite statue of the vizier Paser.
The Chinese collection is one of the most comprehensive in Europe. It is a significant
and representative collection of pieces from earlier dynasties as well as numerous
fine examples from later dynasties, and right up to the work of contemporary Chinese
printmakers.
Sunderland Museums and Heritage Service and Tyne & Wear
Archives & Museums (museum collections)
• Monkwearmouth Station Museum
• Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery
• Washington ‘F’ Pit Museum
• Discovery Museum
• Laing Art Gallery
• Shipley Art Gallery
• South Shields Museum and Art Gallery
• Stephenson Railway Museum
Fine and decorative arts, natural sciences, and science and technology museum
collections.
‘Laus Veneris’ by Edward BurneJones. Photo: Tyne & Wear
Archives & Museums.
The Designated science and technology collection includes important material relating
to marine engineering, such as Turbinia, the world’s first vessel driven by steam turbine.
The collections relating to coal mining, railways and mechanical engineering are also
strong. The Designated decorative and fine arts collections feature significant holdings
of Newcastle silver, contemporary craft and Sunderland glass, including the exquisite
Londonderry Dinner Service, as well as paintings by artists such as Lowry and BurneJones. The large and diverse Designated natural science collections include the work of
John Hancock and Thomas Bewick.
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (archive collections)
Shipbuilding, marine and maritime trade archive collection
The collections at Tyne and Wear Archives comprise tens of thousands of items,
including plans, photographs, and administrative, contract and employee records from
nearly all the shipyards formerly operating on the Tyne and the Wear, one of the most
important shipbuilding regions in the world. They also include the records of related
engineering and fitting companies and ship-owners.
The archives hold documents relating to Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North
Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland, and preserve documents relating to the area
from the 12th to the 21st century.
23
North West
Chetham’s Library
The entire holdings
Chetham’s Library was founded in 1653 and is the oldest public library in the Englishspeaking world. The library sought to be the main repository for printed literature and
study materials in Manchester so began acquiring books in August 1655, and has been
adding to its collections ever since. Originally the library sought to acquire books on
what was then seen as the whole range of human knowledge, but since 1945 when
the current collection policy was redefined, has focussed on books, manuscripts and
archives relating to the history of North West England. Collections are particularly strong
in theology, history, science, medicine and the classics.
The library holds over 100,000 volumes of printed books, of which 60,000 were
published before 1851. These include particularly rich collections of sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century printed works, periodicals, journals and broadsides. As well as
this fine collection of early printing, the collections include a wealth of ephemera,
manuscript diaries, letters and deeds, prints, paintings and glass lantern-slides. The
printed books, and to a lesser extent the manuscripts, are important less by virtue of
what they are – as copies or examples of texts – than because of how and when they
came into the collection. Chetham’s can be seen as a museum of collecting, a repository
which shows not only what was acquired, but when and how it was acquired.
Lancashire County Museum Service:
• Higher Hill Museum, Helmshore
• Whitaker’s Mill, Helmshore
• Queen Street Mill, Burnley
The textile industry collections
These museums trace the history of weaving and spinning through the displays of
handlooms, power looms, flying shuttles, dobbies, jacquards, water frames, drop spindles
and powerful spinning mules. Many contain original machines, and a number are still in
working order and demonstrated on a regular basis. Queen Street Mill contains a unique
collection of machinery which has been preserved in situ, including the original Lancashire
boiler, the 500 horse power tandem compound steam engine ‘Peace, the line shafting
throughout the mill and the 19th century looms connected to it.
Liverpool and Merseyside Record Offices
Photographic image collection
The extensive photographic archives at Liverpool Record Office consist of around
180,000 photographs from the late 19th century onwards. They cover topics as diverse
as town planning, city engineering, housing, transport and public health, and document
the changing face of this internationally important city.
St George’s Hall, pre 1900.
Photo: Liverpool and Merseyside
Record Office.
Also held in the collection are a large number of portraits, landscapes and local scenes
by Edward Chambré Hardman (1898-1988), who was one of the most admired portrait
and landscape photographers of the 20th century. 150,000 of his portrait photographs
of local people and visitors including Ivor Novello and Margot Fonteyn are held at the
Record Office.
24
North West
Manchester City Galleries
• Manchester City Art Gallery
• Platt Hall, the Gallery of Costume
• Wythenshawe Hall
• Heaton Hall
Fine and decorative art, and costume collections.
This group of galleries house Designated collections of fine and decorative art and
costume. Manchester Art Gallery is renowned for its collections of fine and decorative
art, including internationally famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings and significant holdings
of English ceramics. The art gallery re-opened in 2002 after a £35 million expansion
which doubled the amount of display space available.
The Gallery of Costume holds one of the country’s finest collections of clothing, textiles
and fashion accessories. The collection consists of more than 21,000 items from the 17th
century to the present day, including rare examples of the everyday dress of working
people.
The National Co-operative Archive, The Co-operative College
The entire holdings
This collection is an outstanding record of the development of co-operation from its
beginnings in the 19th century to the present day, and includes many rare and unique
records such as the correspondence of the ‘Father of Co-operation’ Robert Owen. As well
as the history of co-operation the archive covers a wide range of subject areas including
advertising, education, employment, funerals, gender studies, politics, retailing, and
youth groups. The depth and richness of the material held by the archive reflects the
co-operative movement’s proud claim to look after its members from the cradle to the
grave.
Archive material. Photo: National
Co-operative Archive, The Cooperative College.
The People’s History Museum
The entire holdings
The People’s History Museum explores the world changing events led by the working
people of Britain, with collections covering the last 200 years. The museum holds a
highly regarded collection of 18th and 19th century political cartoons; significant
poster collections, particularly some 1,500 political posters relating to the Spanish Civil
War and to the Labour Party; around 3,000 badges from a variety of organisations;
and an important collection of political tokens and medals. There is a collection of
commemorative ceramics, prints, ephemera and around 70,000 photographic images
covering labour history, the Labour Party and more general social history.
The museum holds the largest collection of historic trade union and political banners in
the world. There are over 400 banners in the collection including the world’s oldest trade
union banner, that of the Liverpool Tinplate Workers of 1821.
25
North West
National Football Museum
Museum’s Core Collections
The National Football Museum holds the world’s finest collection of material culture and
archives relating to Association Football. The collection covers the broadest possible
spectrum of the game’s rich social history and includes: paintings, prints, posters,
advertising, sculpture, fans’ memorabilia, toys and games, ceramics, trophies, other
silverware, printed ephemera and programmes, archives, books, kit and equipment,
medical equipment, players’ records, film, video, photography, and oral history.
Highlights include the FIFA Collection, the ball from the 1966 World Cup Final, an
England shirt from the world’s first international game in 1872, the Littlewood’s
Pools Collection, the Football League register of players from 1889, Stuart Clarke’s
photographs of fan culture, Thomas Webster’s painting of football from 1839, the world’s
oldest football board game and Spitting Image puppets of Paul Gascoigne and Eric
Cantona. The collection documents a national obsession and the world’s most popular
sport, with all its associated memories and emotion.
Unilever Archives & Records Management (Unilever plc)
Archive of the United Africa Company
This archive is of primary significance for the study of the evolution of British business
and corporate organisations; the character of the transnational enterprise; the economic
and political development of the main West African societies from colony to sovereign
state, and the problems of growing indebtedness and economic decline from the 1960s.
All permanent archive collections
This collection reflects the global significance of the company and its predecessor
companies. The comprehensive nature of the records held in the archive are considered
to reflect Unilever’s place in world trade, with the oldest document dating from 1295.
Well-known branches of the Unilever company, such as Colman’s, Wall’s and Lipton, as
well as brands such as Persil, Pears Soap, Lux, PG Tips and Marmite, all feature in the
archive. The records include minute books, printed sources, financial records, advertising
and examples of packaging, images and film, and architectural plans and maps.
University of Manchester Manchester Museum
The entire holdings
This purpose-built museum is housed in a series of impressive Gothic style buildings
at the heart of the University of Manchester. Whilst the first building was designed by
Alfred Waterhouse in 1885 to house the natural history collections, the Manchester
Museum soon developed important humanities collections. Today, the natural science
collections comprise several million specimens, including several thousands of
taxonomically unique ‘types’.
The Living Worlds gallery.
Photo: Manchester Museum.
The collections are divided into subject areas and are curated by specialist keepers. The
natural sciences include Botany, Entomology, Geology, Mineralogy and Zoology, and the
humanities collections comprise Archaeology (Mediterranean, European and Western
Asiatic), Egyptology, Ethnology, Numismatics and Archery.
26
North West
University of Manchester Whitworth Art Gallery
The entire holdings
The Whitworth Art Gallery’s collections cover the areas of fine art, textiles and
wallpapers. Both textiles and wallpapers are amongst the finest collections in the
country, outside of London. The wallpaper ranges from 17th century to the present
day, including several important French pieces. Amongst the highlights of the textile
collection are the post-Pharonic Egyptian textiles which illustrate all of the main textile
techniques in use from 300-1000 AD.
Arts and crafts design is well represented in both textiles and wallpapers, and the gallery
has near-comprehensive holdings of Morris & Co. textiles. The fine art collections are
particularly strong in works on paper and include important works by JMW Turner and
William Blake. The 20th century drawing is well represented as well as a number of Pop
Art works and prints by British artists.
University of Manchester John Rylands University Libray
Special Collections and Manchester Medical Society Library
The John Rylands Library, Deansgate, houses some of the most significant books and
manuscripts ever produced. The special collections represent an outstanding national
and regional resource, combining material of international significance with collections
directly relevant to the history and wider impact of Manchester and the North West.
Fragment of St John’s Gospel,
c.200AD. Photo: University
of Manchester, John Rylands
University Library.
The collections include medieval illuminated manuscripts, examples of the earliest
forms of European printing including the Gutenberg Bible, and the personal papers of
distinguished historical figures including Elizabeth Gaskell and John Wesley. The printed
collections encompass almost all of the landmarks of printing through five centuries:
illustrated books, examples of fine printing, landmark works in typography, key historical
texts and exquisite book bindings. The collections cover a wide range of subjects:
theology and philosophy; literature, drama and music; art and archeology; science and
medicine; economic, social, political and military history; travel and exploration; and
more than fifty languages.
The Manchester Medical Society Library contains medical printed books dating between
c.1800-1950 associated with the Manchester Medical Society.
Wordsworth Trust
The entire holdings
The collections held at Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum are founded on the
papers, books and personalia which Wordsworth bequeathed to his family.
Through this material, and subsequent collecting, the museum covers not only the
lives and works of Wordsworth and his circle, but the wider phenomenon of British
Romanticism, and the role of the Lake District in inspiring writers and artists of the
Romantic Movement.
Aside from its outstanding manuscript and portrait collections, the museum holds
important paintings, prints and drawings of the Lake District. Among these is Joseph
Wright of Derby’s painting of Ullswater, David Cox’s ‘Morecambe Bay Sands’, and
drawings by Joseph Farington.
27
North West
The Canal and Rivers Trust
The National Waterways Museum
The entire holdings
The museum is situated in a 200-year old historic dock complex on the south bank of the
River Mersey, close to the Port of Liverpool. The museum houses the largest collection
of canal boats in the world, a working lock, and dock workers cottages, and provides a
glimpse to what life was like during the heyday of the waterways. The open air museum
brings to life the many elements which were essential to a successful canal port in the
19th century. In the Pump House are steam driven pumping engines which supplied
the power for the hydraulic cranes and capstans around the dock, and the Power Hall
houses a range of engines that supplied the power for a variety of boats and other canal
related activities.
A view of the National Waterways
Museum.
Photo: Canal and Rivers Trust.
On the upper floor of the warehouse visitors can find out more about those who lived
and worked on the canals through interactive displays and recordings of surviving
members of old canal families.
Please note: this Designated collection is held on several sites; these sites also appear in
the East Midlands and South West lists.
28
South East
Oxford University Library
Special collections at the Bodleian Library:
Rare books, manuscripts and archives, maps, music, and Oxford University Archives.
The special collections of Oxford University Library Services comprise the largest and
richest university special collections in the world due to their breadth and quality. The
collections comprise: rare printed books; manuscripts (historical, literary, and political);
archives; printed ephemera; maps in both manuscript and print; and printed and
manuscript music, and are equally strong in western and non-western materials of all
dates and periods from antiquity onwards.
The collections contain a significant proportion of the world’s cultural heritage (the
Bodleian’s collections of early Sanskrit materials are the largest outside of the Indian
sub-continent, and the early Hebrew books are the most significant outside Israel or
New York). The collections include many rare and important items, such as the only
Shakespeare First Folio still in its original home, Handel’s conducting score of Messiah
and Holst’s autograph of The Planets.
The collection held by Oxford University Archives (OUA) comprises the administrative
records of the University itself. Dating from 1214 to the present, these document the
history and development of the first university to be established in the UK.
Royal Engineers Museum
The entire holdings
The collections at the Royal Engineers Museum tell the history of the Corps and
its central contribution to military construction and engineering through courage,
creativity and innovation. In peace and war the Corps has been everywhere and
involved in everything.
The museum galleries display: exquisite Chinese embroideries given to General Gordon:
maps: drawings: letters and airgraphs: paintings and fine uniforms; Zulu shields from
Rorke’s Drift; tanks, torpedoes; bridges; and chemical weapons. The museum also holds
a particularly comprehensive collection of British medals.
The library, founded in 1813, holds material as diverse as 1860’s photographs of Canada,
classic military histories and World War One unit war diaries.
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South East
Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums (Brighton and Hove)
• Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
• Royal Pavilion
• Preston Manor
• Booth Museum of Natural History
Decorative arts, world art and anthropology, and natural history.
Brighton’s museums were Designated in respect of several important collections. The
collections of decorative arts include the Regency furniture and silver-gilt displayed in
the Royal Pavilion, the Macquoid furniture at Preston Manor, the Willett Collection of
ceramics illustrating popular history, and outstanding holdings of British and European
20th century decorative design and craft.
Asante batakari gown from
Ghana.
Photo: Royal Pavilion, Libraries
and Museums.
The Designated collections of non-western art and anthropology include particularly
fine textile collections, such as the Green Collection from Burma.
The collections, in the Booth Museum of Natural History, were the first in Brighton to be
Designated. Containing over 700,000 items, these collections are strong in world-wide
and British insects, vertebrates (especially birds), UK plants and fossils.
University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum
The entire holdings
The Ashmolean Museum was founded in 1683, the first institutional museum in Britain,
and arguably in Europe. Notable among antiquities are the Egyptian collections, the
Classical Greek collections including the ‘Arundel Marbles’ and the Felix Gem, and
the Alfred Jewel. Paintings date from early Italian to Pre-Raphaelite and there are
outstanding drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo. The arts of China, Japan, South
East Asia and Islam are well represented, as are Maiolica, Renaissance bronzes and
numismatics.
University of Oxford, Museum of the History of Science
The entire holdings
This museum occupies the original home of Elias Ashmole’s museum, the oldest
purpose-built museum in Britain. Its Designated collections are dominated by an
exceptional collection of early mathematical and scientific instruments, including the
largest collection of astrolabes in the world.
A highlight of this group of objects is the earliest known Persian astrolabe, dating from
the 10th century. The early sundial collection comprises 750 examples, the earliest being
a portable Roman dial from around 250AD.
The microscope collections, an important collection of telescopes, and photographic
equipment including items that belonged to Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and TE
Lawrence, are further important facets of this remarkable museum.
30
South East
University of Oxford, Museum of Natural History
The entire holdings
Housed in an exceptional Grade I listed Victorian building (1860) of cast iron and glass,
the University’s collections are heavily used in research, teaching and public education.
Highlights include: the collections of Hope and Dale: the oldest known pinned insect
(1702) in entomology; Buckland, Phillips, Daubeny, and Lyell (geology); Simmons
(mineralogy); smaller collections from Burchell, Darwin, Wallace, Livingstone, Bell; and
extensive modern collections.
The Tradescant collection, bequeathed to Oxford by Elias Ashmole in 1677 contains
some of the oldest documented zoology specimens in the world, including the Oxford
Dodo. Equally prominent are the associated archival materials, including those of the
‘father of English geology’, William Smith.
Sperm whale skeleton, University
of Oxford Museum of Natural
History. Photo: David Gower.
University of Oxford, Pitt Rivers Museum
The entire holdings
The Pitt Rivers Museum takes the world for its province, with collections of artefacts that
date from earliest times to the present day and extensive photographic and archival
collections.
The museum is famous for its ‘typological’ displays in which material is organised not
by origin or date but by function. Every aspect of human life is presented in displays
of basketry, body adornment, magic, masks, medicine, music making, navigation and
textiles, among dozens of other themes. These are complemented by a number of
culture-specific displays, such as that devoted to material from the South Seas collected
on Captain Cook’s Second famous Voyage of Discovery.
University of Reading
Archive of British publishing and printing
The archive covers the full range of British publishing activity from 1800 to the present day.
Most of the major literary, general and educational publishers are represented including
Allen & Unwin, Heinemann Educational Books, Macmillan, and Random House.
Library - The Beckett Collection
This collection demonstrates Beckett’s profound impact upon European theatre in the
20th century and upon the continuing evolution of performance in formal and informal
settings.
Museum of English Rural Life - the entire holdings
The Museum is dedicated to the spirit of the English countryside and its people. It was
founded by the University of Reading in 1951 at a time when the motorised revolution
was changing the face of farming and sweeping away implements and techniques that
had evolved over many generations. Today, the museum is a national centre for the
history of food, farming and the countryside, and continues with the task of recording
and interpreting rural change. It is both a public resource and an academic research
centre, preserving Designated collections of national and international significance.
These comprise, in addition to the objects, a library of over 50,000 books, archives of
business and organisational records, and extensive photographic collections.
31
South East
University of Sussex Library
The Mass-Observation Archive
This archive provides a written record of everyday life in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This collection is a unique social document of the lives of ordinary people in the UK in
the 20th and 21st centuries. It is of outstanding importance for the study of the social
history of this period and for the development of social research methods. The collection
is also invaluable for the study of the nature of personal representation and associated
disciplines.
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
The entire holdings
Over 45 buildings, illustrating the development of buildings in Kent, East and West
Sussex, Surrey and eastern Hampshire, have been reconstructed on the museum’s
site. They include four medieval houses, seven later houses and cottages (including
Tudor and Victorian), a medieval shop, agricultural buildings, and craft and trade
workshops. The museum’s buildings, together with the expertise gained in dismantling
and reconstructing them, are essential for the study of the vernacular architecture in
south-east England and of timber framed building. Each building has been carefully
reconstructed to a particular period in its history and provides insights into aspects of
working domestic life. The primary collection of buildings is supplemented by important
collections of building parts, craft and building tools, and agricultural equipment.
The Market Square, Weald and
Downland Open Air Museum.
Photo: Julian Bell.
The museum offers an extensive programme of lifelong learning based on the
collections.
32
South West
Bath & North East Somerset Heritage Services:
• Fashion Museum
• Roman Baths Museum
• Bath Record Office
The entire holdings
The collection at the Fashion Museum includes over 30,000 items of fashionable dress
for men, women and children from the late 17th century to the present day. From shifts
and corsets to Lycra and Versace, the collection is the most amazing resource if you want
to find out more about fashion history.
Some of the best known finds from Roman Britain are to be found amongst the 50,000
objects in the Roman Baths Museum. The collections include objects from the mesolithic
to the present which tell the story of seven thousand years of human activity around
Britain’s only hot springs, which are the heart of the World Heritage Site at Bath.
The collections held at the Record Office relate to the history and development of Bath
as a World Heritage City.
Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
• Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
• M Shed
• Georgian House
• Red Lodge
• Blaise Castle House Museum
Collections related to Bristol’s role as a manufacturing city and major seaport
Bristol Lodekka Bus, Bristol City
Museums. Photo: Neil Philips.
The strengths of Bristol’s collections are linked to its role as a manufacturing city and
a major seaport. The museums were Designated in respect of outstanding collections
relating to the City of Bristol, including topographical paintings and prints, maps and
archaeological collections. The collections relating to the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th
centuries are particularly rich, and reflect the importance of Bristol in those centuries.
Among the Designated applied art collections with a strong Bristol connection are
important collections of delftware and glass.
Also Designated are Bristol’s geology collections and fine and applied arts from the Far
East, including the celebrated Schiller Collection.
Bristol City Record Office and Bristol Central Library’s Local Studies Service
All collections relating to the history and development of the city of Bristol.
This comprehensive collection is essential to the study of the city and its place
in national history.
33
South West
The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum
The Arts and Crafts collections
Cheltenham’s Designated collection relates to the British Arts and Crafts Movement
spanning the 1880s to about 1940.
The Cotswolds were an important centre for one of Britain’s most inspiring and
influential art movements. The collection has a strong local base featuring furniture,
silver, metalwork, plasterwork, leatherwork and embroideries by designers such as C.R.
Ashbee and Ernest Gimson. Since the 1970s the collection has been developed to give
a national overview with work by William Morris, C.F.A. Voysey, Baillie Scott, Eric Gill and
many others.
Visitors are captivated by the colourful designs and craft skills on show as well as the
thought-provoking social message of the Movement with its emphasis on creative
manual work.
Cornwall Record Office
The archives relating to Cornwall’s hard-rock mining industry
Cornwall was the most important metal mining county in the United Kingdom, with
the longest history of continuous production. It produced most of the country’s tin and
arsenic and a large proportion of its copper.
Most of the land-owning families in the area were involved in mining enterprises and
consequently family and estate archives may include setts, bounds certificates, accounts,
plans, and correspondence. Records of individual mines or adventures can also be
found in the Record Office’s smaller miscellaneous deposits, and a few collections relate
specifically to mining.
The archives at Cornwall Record Office are of outstanding historical, technological,
cultural and economic value in evidencing the growth and decline of one of the South
West’s most important industries.
Hampshire Record Office
The entire holdings
Hampshire Record Office holds: parish registers; wills and inventories; school log
books; tithe and enclosure maps; and archives of many significant institutions and
organisations which have proved key to an understanding of national trends and events.
Among these are the records of the medieval bishops of Winchester, which include an
unusually complete series of bishops’ registers, and also the internationally renowned
Winchester pipe rolls – manorial accounts for the bishops’ vast estates which date back
to 1208/9. There is also the extensive archive of the city of Winchester, dating back to the
12th century and one of the most complete for any medieval borough in the country.
Watercolour sketch of Florence
Nightingale and her pony, Peggy.
Photo: Hampshire Record Office.
Hampshire Record Office also houses a regional audio-visual archive – Wessex Film
and Sound Archive – which has film footage and recordings from the earliest days of
cinematography and sound recording.
34
South West
Mary Rose Trust
The entire holdings
The Mary Rose is the only recovered 16th century warship and is of international
significance in maritime archaeology and beyond.
Weighing some 300 tons, and standing as high as a four-storey building, the hull is
revolutionary in design and provides vital evidence of shipbuilding techniques for a
period when ship plans do not survive. Moreover, the breadth and completeness of
the military, domestic and personal objects found within her, in many cases unique,
together with the ecofacts and human remains, form one of the largest groups of well
preserved associated material.
Designation recognises the importance of the whole of the collection which acts as a
benchmark for scholars and a fascinating insight into Tudor life.
National Motor Museum
The entire holdings
The National Motor Museum was established as an independent charitable trust in
1972. Collecting had begun 20 years earlier, through the enterprise of Lord Montagu of
Beaulieu.
The museum tells the story of motoring Britain from 1895 to the present day and
is home to the world’s oldest surviving Fiat and Renault cars. More contemporary
attractions include the 1993 Jaguar XJ220. Among a host of unique exhibits are Donald
Campbell’s 1960 Bluebird Land Speed Record-breaker and the 1910 Bugatti Type 15
once owned by Ettore Bugatti himself.
Significant reference, photographic, film and video library collections have a world-wide
remit in terms of material holdings, enquiries received and services provided.
Land speed record toys, National
Motor Museum.
Photo: Tom Wood.
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
The Cottonian Collection
The Designated Cottonian Collection was bequeathed to the city of Plymouth by
William Cotton (1794-1863) from whom it takes its name, but the collection was largely
assembled during the 18th century by Charles Rogers (1711-1784). His connoisseurship,
combined with an extensive network of contacts in the art world, resulted in a collection
of some 20,000 prints, drawings and paintings, regarded by his contemporaries as one
of the finest in England. A 30-day sale in 1799 reduced the collection by two thirds
but, nevertheless, the collection inherited by Plymouth is of outstanding quality and
provides rare insights into the history of printmaking.
35
South West
Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
The core collection of submarine telegraphy objects and the historic archive collections
of key international telegraph cable companies. These collections of archives and
objects in their original setting tell the story of the development of international
communication that changed the world.
In 1870, Porthcurno began its life as an important centre of communications, as it was
in this year that a chain of telegraph cables linking Britain with India was completed.
Porthcurno was chosen as the landing point for the British end of this cable link. At its
height, Porthcurno was the world’s largest cable station, with 14 telegraph cables in
operation.
Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Morse code punched on slip.
Photo: The PK Trust.
The World Cultures collections
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum’s World Cultures Collection contains important
items from cultures in every continent outside Europe. The objects represent the wide
variety of connections established between local donors and members of communities
in other parts of the world over the past 250 years, and contain material from all three of
the 18th century’s trans-Pacific ventures (those of Cook, Bligh and Vancouver).
Examples of important pieces include a Tahitian mourner’s costume donated by Lt.
Francis Godolphin Bond, and various items relating to the second and third voyages of
Captain Cook including a contentious sheet of bark cloth allegedly from the Cook Island.
Particular strengths are in the collections from the Pacific, North America, Southern
Nigeria and Zaire.
Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
The archaeology collections
This archaeology collection contains rich and varied material from major pre-historic
and later excavations. Finds from excavations at the unique monument of Stonehenge
are held at the Museum, as well as important discoveries such as the Monkton Deverill
Torc and the Amesbury Archer burial.
The Roman collections reflect the rural nature of South Wiltshire and include finds from
villas and farms. From the Anglo-Saxon period there is a remarkable array of grave
goods from cemeteries found locally.
The medieval collections include an incredible number of everyday items found in the
old drainage channels that used to run through the streets of Salisbury. The Museum
also has items from archaeological excavations at Old Sarum, Clarendon Palace and the
medieval pottery kilns at Laverstock.
36
South West
Southampton City Council Cultural Services
• Southampton City Art Gallery
• Museum of Archaeology
Fine Art Collections and Archaeology Collection Southampton City Council’s Designated
fine art collections have particular strengths in 20th century British art before 1914 and
since 1970.
The policy of collecting art within two years of its creation has resulted in the acquisition
of fine examples of work by many Turner Prizewinners.
The archaeology collections are also Designated, and include spectacular medieval glass
and imported pottery collections. The size and range of the archaeology collections
reflect the importance of Southampton in the past and at present, and the 50 years of
systematic archaeological investigations in the city.
ss Great Britain
The ss Great Britain Collection
Brunel’s ss Great Britain is a former passenger steamship that has become one of the
UK’s finest and best-loved visitor attractions. After enjoying over 170 years of adventure,
travelling a million miles at sea and circumnavigating the world 32 times, the ship
returned to the dock where she was built in 1970.
Today the ss Great Britain Trust Collection, based in the Brunel Institute alongside the ss
Great Britain, is central to the study of three major national and international themes:
the development of Victorian maritime technology and the rise of the British mercantile
marine; the history of nineteenth century emigration; and particularly the work of
Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Tank Museum, Bovington Camp
The entire holdings
This museum charts the history and development of one of the 20th century’s most
important weapons. The vehicle exhibits number about 150 and cover an unparalleled
historical and geographical span. The collection is particularly strong on the origins of
the tank and its use in the First World War. There is a large landscape exhibition about
the first tank attack in 1916 which illustrates both British and German trenches. More
recent exhibits cover several theatres of the Second World War, Korea and the Gulf War,
as well as illustrating types from at least 25 different nations.
Tiger Tank 131, Tank Museum.
Photo: Roland Groom.
37
South West
The Canal and Rivers Trust
Waterways Museum at Gloucester Docks
Please note: this Designated collection is held on several sites; these sites also appear in
the East Midlands and North West list.
The entire holdings
The Waterways Museum is in the heart of Gloucester’s historic docks, and tells the
fascinating story of Britain’s 2,000 miles of waterways and life in working docks. The
displays cover many aspects of waterways from the ingenious engineering to home
life on board a narrowboat, and from the wildlife of our canals to different kinds of
waterways crafts.
The museum is housed in a handsome Grade II listed warehouse. On the museum
docksides visitors can see and climb aboard a range of different boats including the
impressive steam dredger. There are hands-on displays and archive films to watch and
visitors can also take a boat trip on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.
The Designated collections include objects painted by boatmen, costumes worn by
boating families, and waterways souvenirs, along with photographic and archive
material.
Torquay Museum
Quaternary Cave Collections
The Kent’s Cavern quaternary collections at Torquay Museum provide a unqiue window
on the prehistory of the South West region and the origin of early man in Britain. The
collection includes over 500 stone tools from Acheulean, Mousterian, Aurignacian,
Creswellian and Magdalenian cultures.; fine bone needles; harpoon points; and a
Mammoth ivory rod. The collection also includes a tiny piece of human jaw, radiocarbon dated to 31,000 bp making it the oldest fragment of anatomically modern
human in Europe and confirming an early date for the presence of humans in Britain.
The cave archaeology at Kents Cavern is exceptional because it represents habitation
or use of the cave in every major period of time, from the lower Palaeolithic to the late
Medieval, a fact that can be stated about no other site in the British Isles.
Wiltshire Museum
The Bush Barrow Lozenge,
excavated in 1808.
Photo: Wiltshire Museum.
The entire holdings
The Wiltshire Museum, Library and Gallery were set up by the Wiltshire Archaeological
& Natural History Society, founded in Devizes in 1853. This followed the acquisition of
the John Britton library of topographical and antiquarian books and manuscripts by a
group of Wiltshire gentlemen. Wiltshire Museum is now home to outstanding collections
that trace the fascinating history of Wiltshire, its environment and its people over the
last 6,000 years. It tells the fascinating story of the pioneers who created the science of
archaeology in Wiltshire 200 years ago and contains items from some of the very first
archaeological excavations at the World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge.
The collections contain Early Bronze Age items, along with objects related to Avebury
and Stonehenge including gold ornaments and jewellery made of various materials.
38
West Midlands
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
The entire holdings
The Barber Institute houses one of the finest small collections of European art in the
whole of the United Kingdom, featuring works ranging from the 13th to the 20th
centuries. The holdings are a gathering of some of the most influential artists of the
previous millennium, with particular strengths lying in the Old Master and Impressionist
collections.
The collection is made up of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, and amongst
the artists represented are Bellini, Botticelli, Holbein, Veronese, Rubens, Van Dyck,
Rembrandt, Poussin, Gainsborough, Turner, Delacroix, Ingres, Rossetti, Whistler, Manet,
Degas, Monet, van Gogh, Rodin, Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, Magritte, and Schiele.
The Barber Institute also houses a rare collection of coins, seals and weights, chiefly from
Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East.
Birmingham Museums Trust
• Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery (main site)
• Aston Hall
• Blakesley Hall
• Jewellery Quarter
• Sarehole Mill
• Soho House Museum
• Thinktank
Fine and decorative arts, science and industry (housed at Thinktank), Birmingham
history (including numismatics) and the Pinto Collection.
Proserpine, by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, 1882. Photo:
Birmingham Museums.
An 1885 inscription at the entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery proclaims that ‘By the
gains of Industry we promote Art’. The Designated collections in Birmingham Museums
and Art Gallery reflect both the promotion of art and Birmingham’s pioneering role in
the Industrial Revolution. The Designated science and industry collections consist of
around 40,000 objects, including James Watt’s Smethwick engine of 1779, the oldest
working steam engine in the world. The wide-ranging Designated fine and decorative
art collections are particularly celebrated for works by pre-Raphaelite artists and for 16th
and 17th century Italian painting.
Also Designated are the Birmingham history collections, the Pinto Collection of wooden
objects, and the numismatics collection.
The quality, range and depth of the city’s combined collections reflect its status as
Britain’s second city; the collections have broader significance in terms of the social,
industrial, commercial and cultural history of the city, the region and the nation.
39
West Midlands
Birmingham Libraries
Central Library
The Central Library has over 2 million photographic items and holds the only national
collection of photography in a public library. It also holds over 6000 archive collections
including many of national and international importance such as the archives of
industrial innovators James Watt and Matthew Boulton; the Birmingham Shakespeare
Library, which is one of the world’s most comprehensive Shakespeare collections;
a superb collection of war poetry; an excellent music collection; and a significant
collection of Children’s books and games. The Early and Fine Printing Collections
incorporate over 8,200 books printed before 1701, 4,500 examples of fine printing, and
outstanding hand-coloured illustrated books. The Birmingham Collection charts every
aspect of Britain’s second city, bringing together material available nowhere else.
The Black Country Living Museum
The entire holdings
The Black Country played a vital role in the nation’s industrial history: it was the world’s
first industrial landscape and one of the most intensely industrialised regions of the
UK. Black Country industries – based on the rich natural resources of coal, ironstone,
limestone and fireclay – expanded hugely during the Industrial Revolution.
Locksmith’s House parlour, Black
Country Living Museum. Photo:
Joanne Moody.
The museum preserves a microcosm of the Black Country’s industrial landscape,
including two mine shafts, limekilns and a canal arm. Historic buildings from all around
the Black Country have been moved and authentically rebuilt at the museum, to create
a tribute to the traditional skills and enterprise of the people that once lived in the
heart of industrial Britain. As well as this core, the museum cares for approximately
61,000 items which include a wide range of the equipment, tools, manufactured goods,
domestic furnishings and everyday objects which represent the life and work of the
people of the Black Country.
British Motor Museum
The entire holdings of motor cars, motoring related artefacts and archive material
The British Motor Museum owns the world’s largest collection of historic British cars and
features vehicles produced by notable manufacturers including Austin, Morris, Mini, MG,
Wolseley, Riley, Triumph, Rover and Land Rover.
Together with the equally extensive archive of films, images and other associated
artefacts, this comprehensive collection describes the history of Britain’s motor industry,
from its beginnings in the 1800s to the current day.
The motor industry in Britain was one of the most defining in terms of the national and
international economy of the 20th Century. Its sphere of influence was not just directly
that of manufacturing but also technological advance, labour relations and workforce
development, change in the landscape, social mobility, design, fashion and recreation as
well as economics and politics.
40
West Midlands
Compton Verney
Archaic Chinese Bronzes
The collection of Chinese bronzes at Compton Verney is one of the best in Britain
outside the British Museum. The vessels were produced over a period of over 1500
years under many different Chinese rulers, and date from the early Shang Dynasty
(about 1700-1050 BC) to the Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220). They were used during
religious rituals and ancestor worship, and were buried in the tombs of the deceased.
The collection also includes cloisonné and pottery pieces, such as a set of twelve painted
pottery equestrian figures made for placing in a tomb to guard the deceased. The
earliest pottery vessel in the collection dates back to the Neolithic period (4500-2000
BC).
Culture Coventry
Coventry Transport Museum - The entire holdings
Displaying the most comprehensive collection of the products of the Midlands motor
industry, this museum demonstrates the central role played by the road transport
industries of Great Britain, and the City of Coventry in particular, in the industrial,
economic, social and cultural development of the world. The museum’s splendid
collection of cycles ranges from an 1818 Hobby Horse to the latest BMX. Its superb
motor vehicle collection, incorporating: the largest display of British Daimlers; Thrust 2,
the previous world land-speed record car; commercial vehicles; and motor cycles and
archives, sustains the argument that the car has been the greatest instrument of social
change of the past century.
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
• Museum of Iron and Darby Furnace (main site)
• Blists Hill Open Air Museum
• Coalport China Museum
• Jackfield Tile Museum
• Broseley Pipe Works
• Darby Houses
• Library and Archives
The entire holdings
The pre-eminence of the Trust’s collections lies in two areas: the remarkable sequence
of monuments and buildings representative of key phases in Britain’s growth as an
industrial nation; and in collections of machines, products and possessions shown in
their original context.
Lidded vase produced for Queen
Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Photo: Ironbridge Gorge
Museums Trust.
The Elton collection is one of the largest devoted to art and memorabilia on industrial
subjects and complements a large volume of social history material. The Darby
Collection includes the homes, furnaces, possessions and records of the ironmasters
as well as fine Coalbrookdale castings and steam engines. The decorative arts material
includes definitive collections of Coalport china and Maws tiles. The Gorge is a World
Heritage Site.
41
West Midlands
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Royal Shakespeare Company
All collections relating to Shakespeare’s life and times
This collection also includes items concerned with the performance and study of
his works from the 16th century to the present day. The collections comprise an
outstandingly deep, rich and varied source for the study and enjoyment of all aspects
of the life and works of one of the world’s most celebrated literary and historical figures.
The collections relate not only to Shakespeare and his works, but also to literary context,
local history and the continuing evolution of theatre and performance.
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service
The entire holdings
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent on Trent Archive Service holds over 7,000 unique
archive collections, dating from the 10th to the 21st centuries, reflecting virtually every
aspect of past life in Staffordshire. This collection has major strengths in family, estate,
industrial and ecclesiastical records. Many documents contain references or context
which relate to a far wider geographical area, throughout Britain and the world.
Presentation volume to George
Melly, MP for Stoke on Trent, 1875,
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent
Archive Service. Photo: Howard
Dixon.
Among the collections are the estate papers of former major landowning families
including those of the Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham; a collection of
documentation relating to 17th century government office and 18th century colonial
North America; business collections relating to pottery, coal, iron and steel; the records
of James Brindley’s construction of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal; and the
archive of the Diocese of Lichfield. It also holds collections from public and private
institutions, the professions, clubs, societies and charities, as well as personal papers,
including those of J Enoch Powell, MP.
Stoke on Trent Museums Service
• Potteries Museum
• Etruria Industrial Museum
• Ford Green Hall
• Gladstone Pottery Museum
The entire holdings
This museum service, all of whose collections are Designated, tells the story of
the North Staffordshire Potteries from the medieval period to the present day.
The archaeological and arts collections provide a wider context for the display and
an understanding of the ceramics collection that includes arguably the finest and
most comprehensive assemblage of British ceramics in the world. The owl jug, which
memorably came to light on BBC Television’s Antiques Roadshow, is perhaps the most
famous exhibit. Supporting this is a wide range of local study material which celebrates
the people, skills, products and landscape of an area named after its main industry, The
Potteries.
42
West Midlands
University of Birmingham, The Lapworth Museum of Geology
The entire holdings
The Lapworth’s collection is one of the most important in the country. As well as
outstanding geological specimens it includes important collections of scientific
instruments, geological models, zoology, comparative anatomy, archaeology and
photography and a unique and very extensive geological archive relating to influential
geologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, notably those of Charles Lapworth and Fred
Shotton. Together these collections explain key advances and detail the resolution of a
number of major geological controversies which drove scientific debate during the 19th
and early 20th centuries.
University of Birmingham Library
Fossil fish, University of
Birmingham, Lapworth Museum
of Geology. Photo: Daniel Salter.
The Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern Manuscripts
The Mingana Collection is made up of over 3,000 Middle Eastern manuscripts in over 20
languages, which include Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, Hebrew, and Armenian, but
is extremely coherent. This unique and rich collection was brought together during the
1920s by an Iraqi priest called Alphonse Mingana, who had settled in England.
The value of the collection to scholarship is enormous. The Syriac section, with its 662
manuscripts rates third in the West after the British Museum and the Vatican Library, and
the Christian Arabic section is surpassed in the West only by the Vatican Library and the
Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris. The large Islamic Arabic section is also noteworthy.
The collection contains a great deal of primary material relating to Islamic, Christian and
Judaic scholarship, so is very relevant to contemporary multi-faith politics
and understanding.
University of Warwick, Modern Records Centre
The entire holdings
The principal objectives of the centre are to locate and preserve primary sources for
modern British social, political and economic history. The centre focuses in particular on
the national history of industrial relations, industrial politics and labour history.
The main strengths of the archive holdings are: the records of trade unions and related
organisations; the records of trade associations, employers’ organisations and related
bodies; motor and related industry records (especially through formal agreement with
Rover/British Motor Industry Heritage Trust); records relating to cycling (the National
Cycle Archive); records of radical British political movements; and records of pressure
groups and other organisations concerned with social and penal reform, human rights,
disarmament, education and health.
43
Yorkshire
Bradford Industrial Museum
Worsted Collection
This collection clearly demonstrates Bradford’s unique and internationally significant
role in the worsted industry. Worsted played an important part in the industrialisation
of England, and the development and mechanisation of the wool textile industry.
Moorside Mills, the site of the museum and an original spinning mill, is full of machinery
which once converted raw wool into the world’s best worsted cloth. The collections
illustrate the process of making worsted from fleece to completed clothing, including
spinning, looms, and combing.
Harewood House
Spinning machinery. Photo:
Bradford Industrial Museum.
The entire holdings
This great 18th century house was designed by John Carr of York for the Lascelles family.
Robert Adam designed the interiors, Thomas Chippendale the furnishings and fittings,
and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped the garden.
Harewood contains rich and diverse collections; internationally important Chippendale
furniture; Renaissance masterpieces; works by Gainsborough, Romney, Reynolds
and Turner; an outstanding collection of Sèvres porcelain, including a tea service made
for Queen Marie-Antoinettte; and clocks made by the royal clockmaker Benjamin
Vulliamy.
Visitors can see fine decorative schemes in the setting for which they were
commissioned; royal memorabilia associated with Princess Mary and The Princess Royal;
and the present Earl’s modern art collection.
Kingston upon Hull City Museums and Art Galleries:
• Ferens Art Gallery
• Hull and East Riding Museum
• Hull Maritime Museum
• Streetlife Museum
• Wilberforce House
Collections relating to the city and region
Kingston upon Hull City Council operates eight museums in the city, which together
attract a third of a million visitors each year.
The collections relating to the City and region are Designated. The maritime collections
with their strong emphasis on whaling, fishing and scrimshaw are internationally known,
as are the collections relating to William Wilberforce. The archaeological collection
from Hull and East Riding includes important Roman mosaics and Celtic material. The
prehistoric Hasholme Boat (currently undergoing conservation) is the oldest boat in
Britain. Streetlife contains a remarkable collection of Victorian motor cars and horse
drawn carriages.
44
Yorkshire
Leeds Museums and Galleries
• Leeds City Art Gallery
• Leeds City Museum
• Lotherton Hall
• Temple Newsam House
• Armley Mills Industrial Museum
• Thwaite Mills Museum
Shells. Photo: Leeds Museums
and Galleries.
Natural science, fine and decorative arts and industrial collections
The City Art Gallery’s 20th century British art collection, especially the sculpture, is
particularly fine. 18th and 19th century English watercolours are also well represented.
The decorative art and old master painting collections installed in restored period
settings at Temple Newsam and Lotherton Hall are rich in: outstanding furniture, notably
Chippendale; silver; textiles; wallpapers; and ceramics, with an excellent collection of
Leeds creamware.
The industrial collections reflect the crucial role played by the city in economic and
social affairs over the last 200 years at national and global levels. Particular strengths lie
in the fields of textiles and engineering.
The world-wide natural science collections contain over 700,000 specimens collected
over a 200 year period. These include a wide selection of specimens of great historical
importance, particularly invertebrate and mineral items and exotic mammals.
Sheffield City Museums
Metalwork collections
Sheffield’s metalwork collection is made up of cutlery, flatware and hollowware made
in the city, together with an outstanding selection of comparative material from Europe
and many parts of Africa and Asia. It includes silver, pewter, stainless steel and Old
Sheffield Plate and is the best collection of its kind in this country and almost certainly
the world.
The collection dates from the 14th century to the present day and includes unique,
handcrafted one-off pieces and examples of the mass-produced cutlery for which
Sheffield has an international reputation.
The Metalwork Gallery, within the Millennium Galleries, is home to over 1,000 items
from this vast collection of some 8,000 objects and with further pieces on display at the
Weston Park Museum.
45
Yorkshire
University of Leeds, Leeds University Library Special Collections
The English Literature Collection
This is a comprehensive manuscript and printed collection particularly strong in: poetry
and drama of the period 1600-1750; the work of diverse 19th century authors; extensive
correspondence of major literary figures of the 19th and 20th centuries; archives of
20th century literary magazines; and manuscripts of a wide range of later 20th century
writers.
The Romany collection
This is a printed and manuscript collection, and is a comprehensive resource for
studying Gypsy history and culture from the 16th to the mid 20th century.
The Cookery collection
This collection is chiefly made up of printed books but with some manuscripts, and
covers cookery in the UK (and to a lesser extent in Europe) from the 16th to the mid 20th
century.
The Leeds Russian Archive
The Russian Archive is a major international resource for the study of Anglo-Russian
relations in the 19th and 20th centuries, and of Russian emigres in that period, especially
literary figures. Constituents include the world’s largest archives for the authors Ivan
Bunin (Nobel Laureate) and Leonid Andreev, and the massive archive of the emigre
organisation Zemgor.
Liddle Collection
The Liddle Collection includes the personal papers of well over 4,000 people who lived
through the First World War, and approximately 500 who experienced the Second
World War. The Liddle collection includes original letters and diaries, official and
personal papers, photographs, newspapers and artwork, and written and tape-recorded
recollections, which preserve first-hand individual experiences of the First World War.
York Museums Trust
• York Castle Museum
• York City Art Gallery
• York Story
• Yorkshire Museum
The entire holdings
York, one of England’s best-loved historic cities, has housed museums since 1821 when
the Yorkshire Museum was founded.
Clock. Photo: York Museums Trust.
The rich collections which York Museums Trust has amassed since then range widely
from: archaeology, biology, geology and numismatics at the Yorkshire Museums; fine art
at the City Art Gallery; and social history, costumes, textiles and military history at the
Castle Museum. Ceramics are held at all three institutions.
Outstanding exhibitions include Anglo-Saxon and Viking metalwork, Romanesque
sculpture, fossil marine reptiles, and paintings by Parmigianino, Bellotto, Hogarth and
Nash, while Kirkgate, the famous reconstructed Victorian street that forms the core of
the Castle Museum, is a milestone in the history of museums.
46
Arts Council England
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You can get this publication in Braille, in large print, on
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you need any of these formats.
Please contact the Designation team with any queries
or feedback at [email protected].
ISBN: 0-7287-1099-4
© Arts Council England, November 2015
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welcome all comments on our work. Please send these
to [email protected].